Dedicated to the Intellectual Brutality of Stanford Football

Oregon State Beavers

11/04/2016

If you're wondering what happened to Oregon State football, you can blame Stanford, at least circumstantially. The Beavers were 9-4 in 2012 and opened the 2013 season 6-1 with eye-popping wins of 44-17, 52-24, and 49-17, but they rode that high down the coast to Palo Alto and lost to the sixth-ranked Cardinal, 20-12. They had won 15 of 20 games prior to that loss, but that would be the first of five straight defeats to close out the regular season. Since that day the Beavers have been the worst team in the Pac-12 with an overall record of 10-28. (Colorado is 14-26; Cal is 17-22.) Yes, blame Stanford.

But even though Oregon State is 2-6 this season and tied with Oregon in the cellar of the Pac-12 North, there are signs of hope. There was a 47-44 overtime win over Cal that featuring 221 yards and three touchdowns from running back Ryan Nall, and last week's narrow loss to Washington State in which the Cougars had to crawl out of a 24-6 deficit to salvage the win.

09/28/2015

The game began with deep concern about quarterback Kevin Hogan and the status of his injured left ankle. He had sat out most of the previous week's practice in hopes of being healthy for this critical road game, and reporters monitored his every move as he took warm-ups before the game, returned to the locker room for treatment, emerged with his ankle wrapped, and was pronounced ready for action. Cardinal fans exhaled for the first time in a week (though there would be even bigger injury concerns later), and the game was finally underway.

Things couldn't have started out better for the Cardinal offense, which featured running back Christian McCaffrey on an opening drive that would give the Beavers a good notion of what the rest of the game would bring. Christian the Lion rumbled with authority, taking the ball on the first five official plays of the series (there was a pass interference play that erased an attempt to Michael Rector) for a total of 35 yards. After a nice 12-yard pass to Devon Cajuste converted a 3rd and 4, McCaffrey rushed for five more yards before giving way to the touchdown machine, Remound Wright, who plunged in from a yard out to give his Cardinal a 7-0 lead.

09/23/2015

Stanford has beaten Oregon State five years in a row, and while it's tempting to see that as a sign that the Beavers have been completely outclassed, this is hardly the case. Andrew Luck led the Cardinal to decisive wins in 2010 (38-0) and 2011 (38-13), but the following two seasons with Kevin Hogan at quarterback saw two hotly contested affairs, 27-23 and 20-12. Last year was more comfortable as the Cardinal came away with an easy 38-14 victory, but for some reason the Oregon State game always makes me feel a little uneasy.

Heading into this game, of course, there is more than the usual cause for concern. Hogan's availability won't be known until game time, which would put Keller Chryst and/or Ryan Burns on center stage for the first time in their collegiate careers. Neither has thrown a pass with a game in question, and suddenly it looks like one of them could be the starting quarterback on Saturday.

Beyond that there was the news earlier this week that linebacker Kevin Anderson will miss the game, further impacting Stanford's already thin front seven.

Even with all this going against the Cardinal, this is still a game that they will win. It's difficult to make a score prediction without knowing which quarterback will be behind center, so I'll hedge my bet a bit.

For a closer look at Oregon State, here's my old friend Angry, who hosts what is probably the most active fan site in the Pac-12, angrybeavs.com. (You can read my answers to his questions over there as well.) So here's Angry...

10/24/2014

I've never told anyone this, but I have a time machine in my garage. It was simple really. I discovered that if I climbed inside an old dryer that had been rigged to spin backwards, it would completely alter space and time. I've never been much for gambling, and I don't feel it would be ethical to buy lottery tickets or long shot stocks, so instead I set the dryer time machine to July of 2014 and headed back to Pac-12 Media Day in Los Angeles to track down David Shaw. Here's the conversation we had, in its entirety.

09/19/2014

With no game to look forward to this Saturday, now seems like the perfect time to look at the Cardinal's 2015 schedule, released this week by the Pac-12. Far too many things will happen between now and next fall to predict outcomes of any of the games, but let's take a game-by-game trip through the schedule anyway, just for fun. Oh, and keep this in mind as we go -- the schedule sets up perfectly for a run to the playoffs.

08/30/2014

Back by popular demand -- or, more accurately, by one person's demand -- is GMC's yearly schedule breakdown. Why wait for the games to be played when you can just read on? As usual, I'll give you my thoughts on each game along with the likelihood of a Cardinal victory, but just for fun I've also assigned a different 80s movie to each matchup. It promises to be entertaining...

August 30 vs. UC DavisMovie: The Sure ThingQuote: "I hope you appreciate the magnitude of your impending good fortune."

I don't know the real reason why UC Davis is on the schedule this year, but it might just be to remind Stanford fans how far the program has come. It was nine years ago that Davis somehow beat Stanford, 20-17, in a game that was surely brought up in the halls of the Stanford athletic department as some voices pushed to drop the football program down to Division II. In less than a decade, Stanford football has gone from being one of the worst teams in the country to one of the nation's elite.

As devastating and shocking as that 2005 loss was, I can't imagine that anyone connected with the 2014 Cardinal is thinking about revenge. No one on the team was even out of middle school at that point, and this team has goals much larger than righting a nine-year-old wrong. This game isn't about revenge, it's about finishing without any major injuries.

I can't imagine that we'll see much from the starters after half time, but while they're in there it'll be interesting to see how the offensive line plays and what the running back rotation looks like. In the second half we should get a look at some of the younger players, including Christian McCaffrey, and the second- and third-string quarterbacks. It'll be fun.

Expected Outcome: This is a sure thing. 100% chance of Stanford victory.

11/03/2013

Saturday night's game against Oregon State had all the earmarks of a trap game. Coming between perhaps the two most difficult contests on the schedule (UCLA and Oregon) and featuring an underrated opponent led by the nation's leading passer and his favorite target, the nation's leading receiver, this game in Corvallis was a popular pick with those looking for an upset. It didn't turn out that way.

10/24/2013

The last time the Cardinal lost consecutive games was in 2009, and Oregon State was involved. Stanford was a young team back then, but they were clearly on the rise. They were 4-1, having just defeated Washington and UCLA in consecutive weeks, and they looked to build on that momentum on a rainy afternoon in Corvallis. The game started with a brilliant call that the coaching staff had scripted during the week -- a play action pass with running back Toby Gerhart as the decoy and wide receiver Chris Owusu on a deep post pattern. Every thing worked perfectly. Owusu was five yards behind the defense when the ball arrived, but he dropped it and the Cardinal never recovered. (They'd lose again the following week at Arizona for their only losing streak in the past five seasons.)

Since then, the Beavers haven't offered much resistance. There was a 38-0 win in 2010, 38-13 in '11, and a 27-23 nailbiter last year. This year Oregon State comes into the matchup with a résumé that's impressive at first glance, but a bit suspect upon further examination. The Beavers are 6-1 and ranked #25 in the BCS, but their schedule thus far wouldn't scare anyone. Yes, they're 4-0 in conference play, but those four wins have come against some of the worst teams in the Pac-12. And their only loss? It was a 49-46 opening day loss to Eastern Washington, an FCS school.

But if Stanford is looking past the Beavers and towards the Oregon game two weeks from now, they would be making a huge mistake. The Beavers feature the most prolific passing attack in the nation. Quarterback Sean Mannion will likely jump the 3,000-yard mark with his first completion of the game (he's thrown for 2,992 yards, an average of 427 yards per game) and by the end of the season will sit comfortably in second place on Oregon State's all-time passing list with a season of eligibility remaining.

Mannion's favorite target is junior wide receiver Brandin Cooks, and his numbers are even more ridiculous. Cooks caught 67 balls for 1151 yards and five touchdowns last season, but he's already eclipsed all those marks in just seven games this year (76/1176/12). In his four Pac-12 games (admittedly against weak sisters Utah, Colorado, Washington State, and Cal) he has 42 receptions for 747 yards and 8 touchdowns. It's enough to make a defensive back pull a hamstring on purpose.

To learn more about Oregon State and how their season has been going so far, I contacted the mysterious angry of angrybeavs.com. (I could tell you his real name, but then I'd have to kill you. But before I do that, jump over to his site and check out my answers to his questions about the Cardinal.) angry was angry about having to answer so many questions, but then he's always angry. Okay, I'll stop now. Here's the Q&A:

11/11/2012

In the early going on Saturday afternoon it looked like Kevin Hogan and the Stanford Cardinal would simply run Oregon State into the ground. Picking up right where they left off against Colorado, the Cardinal dominated both sides of the ball throughout the first quarter as they forged a 14-0 lead and threatened to turn what had been expected to be a close game into a blowout.

11/09/2012

This has been a long, strange season to say the least. After the peaks and valleys of September, the Cardinal settled into something of a malaise in October as fans lost faith in the quarterback and questioned the head coach. But November has brought a new quarterback and newfound optimism.

This Saturday Kevin Hogan and the Stanford Cardinal will host the Oregon State Beavers in what is essentially a Rose Bowl elimination game. Assuming that Oregon finishes the season unbeaten (beating both Stanford and Oregon State along the way), the Ducks will likely head to the National Championship game, leaving the Rose Bowl short a team. There are dozens of variables that come into play, but it isn't a stretch to imagine the Rose Bowl committee choosing the next-best available Pac-12 team, and the winner of Saturday's game will have the inside track towards making that claim.

Oregon State boasts in impressive 7-1/5-1 record, but how good are they really? The Beavers made an early statement when they beat Wisconsin, a team that was much more highly regarded on September 8th than they are now, and two weeks later beat UCLA, a team that wasn't yet playing to its potential. Aside from that they have no real signature wins, nothing like Stanford's win over USC, for example.

If they're to get this win, it will start with their defense. As excited as Stanford fans were about Kevin Hogan's performance last week, his success came at the expense of perhaps the worst defense in the conference. The Beavers have a defense to rival Stanford's. The Cardinal may lead the nation in yards rushing allowed, but OSU is only four slots back in fifth place overall.

The similarities continue on the other side of the ball. Just like Stanford, the Beavers are breaking in a new quarterback. Sean Mannion had the reins early on, but injuries and poor performance opened up an opportunity for his back-up, and Cody Vaz has taken advantage. He threw for 332 yards in his season debut against BYU four weeks ago, and he totalled 267 yards and three touchdowns in the OSU win over Arizona State last week.

This game is coming at the perfect time for the Cardinal. After a week of practice as the #1 quarterback, Hogan will get to measure himself against one of the top defenses in the country as he attempts to lead Stanford to its second big win of the season. But enough from me. Cliff Kirkpatrick covers Oregon State for the Corvallis Gazette-Times, so he knows more about the Bears than I could ever hope to learn. He was nice enough to field a few questions from me. Take a read...

GMC Book Club

Over the past three years, GMC readers have donated a total of 344 books to my classroom! My students are always looking for new and exciting books, so if you'd like to contribute, simply click here! Or, click here to read my original post and find out more!